Ambient air pollution, meteorology, and COVID-19 infection in Korea

The outbreak of novel pneumonia coronavirus disease has become a public health concern worldwide. Here, for the first time, the association between Korean meteorological factors and air pollutants and the COVID-19 infection was investigated. Data of air pollutants, meteorological factors, and daily COVID-19 confirmed cases of seven metropolitan cities and nine provinces were obtained from 3 February 2020 to 5 May 2020 during the first wave of pandemic across Korea. We applied the generalized additive model to investigate the temporal relationship. There was a significantly nonlinear association between daily temperature and COVID-19 confirmed cases. Each 1°C increase in temperature was associated with 9% (lag 0-14; OR = 1.09; 95% CI = 1.03-1.15) increase of COVID-19 confirmed cases when the temperature was below 8°C. A 0.01 ppm increase in NO₂ (lag 0-7, lag 0.14, and lag 0-21) was significantly associated with increases of COVID-19 confirmed cases, with ORs (95% CIs) of 1.13 (1.02-1.25), 1.19 (1.09-1.30), and 1.30 (1.19-1.41), respectively. A 0.1 ppm increase in CO (lag 0-21) was associated with the increase in COVID-19 confirmed cases (OR = 1.10, 95% CI = 1.04-1.16). There was a positive association between per 0.001 ppm of SO₂ concentration (lag 0, lag 0-7, and lag 0-14) and COVID-19 confirmed cases, with ORs (95% CIs) of 1.13 (1.04-1.22), 1.20 (1.11-1.31), and 1.15 (1.07-1.25), respectively. There were significantly temporal associations between temperature, NO₂ , CO, and SO₂ concentrations and daily COVID-19 confirmed cases in Korea.